Thieves' law as a way of organizing life

In the life of each state there are several layers of society. Russia is no exception. One of these "unofficial" layers is the thief community. This informal and illegal organization is a kind of state in the state.

Thieves' concepts and laws passed to the USSR from prerevolutionary Russia. However, over time, several times changed.

The community lives in accordance with the unwritten code of rules, which strictly regulate the life of the underworld. Thieves' concepts and laws detail the rights and duties of thieves, the way they behave. These rules change with time.

According to an unwritten rule, which existed for many years, the whole world for thieves is divided into strangers and its own. Thieves' law extends only to its own, it is a kind of corporate rules. Strangers may not obey the law. They are generally needed solely for their own to survive.

Since the middle of the twentieth century, the thieves' law has been gradually being modified. It applies to all prisoners, but gives considerable relief to the thief community.

So, for example, a thief in the law until the 80's was obliged to lead a vividly antisocial way of life. The thief in law is the leader of criminals, the person occupying the highest level of the thieves' hierarchy, dedicated. He had to spend many times in prison. He was forbidden to marry, work, communicate with any representatives of the law.

Today these rules almost do not work. Until the 1960s, the thieves' community was international, single. After the 80's, it disintegrated into groups based on territorial characteristics, the thieves' laws and concepts changed.

Nevertheless, today the thievish world successfully competes with the civilized business and even surpasses it in many respects.

The thieves' law must be observed by all members of the community. It is not just invented: it is formed from thieves' orders. This is the name of the new rules that can be adopted in disputes and new situations that did not exist before.

Like any society, the thief organization has not only its own laws, but also its own language (argo, fenya). Its purpose is the same as for any language of declassed elements: to identify oneself, to transmit information in a practically encrypted, incomprehensible way.

The law does not impose a duty on members of the community to use it. However, possession of it is taken for granted.

The thieves' law for a long time had some positive points. Thieves in the law carefully followed the "correctness" of their members. There were certain attitudes, it was rigidly defined, that it is possible, and that it is impossible to do. In the organization, law and order reigned, to which all its members were subordinate.

To date, thieves' law can no longer provide complete subordination. In criminal groups there were people who did not recognize any (neither thievish, nor state) laws (the so-called scumbags). There are often conflicts between territorial groupings, and a thief in law can become a person who has never been in prison.

All this together speaks of the degradation of the thieves' community.